30.10.10

Description: Written and Directed by Dan Wagstaffe - www.danwagstaffe.co.uk 'This is my house' says Carl Leighton (Paul Joseph). He's talking about life in prison where he's serving nine months for theft. This is Carl's seventh jail term in as many years. This fictional drama takes us on a journey through two very different sentence options given by a magistrate. Carl is relaxed and imaginative in the confines of a prison cell; a Community Payback sentence is his worst nightmare. Many months spent living in the safe haven of a prison routine have been replaced by a need for personal responsibility, not to mention payback for his crime.Channels: Action Reality Other Short Films Tags: Action, Dan Wagstaffe, Drama, Short Film, Paul Joseph, Prison, Short

18.4.08

Little Victim ventures into the realms of the supernatural with a straight face. Brian Ronalds is Duane, a shady character meeting his upper crust divorced father Howard (the legendary Robert Wagner) in a parking garage. Howard has trophy Tracey (Lori Singer) draped in the passenger seat, while Duane has his rather lower-class mother Irene (Laura Durant) in tow. Duane has a treasure to deliver. However, he also has a surprise in the trunk that warrants a lot of discussion and debate.

The script is talky, but the talk is quite worthwhile. Dellis likes his humor presented with the kind of delivery that borders on dramatic. All four of the actors prove adept at saying the impossible as though it were routine. Wagner is strong. Always known for his natural suaveness, he uses his sonorous voice to espouse some pretty fantastical lines. In the opposite extreme, Durant is very funny as trailer trash, making her character into a mockery even while proving the most knowledgeable about the subject. Ronalds plays deadly serious quite well, while the weakest performance comes from Singer, who starts off disjointedly as the stereotypical dumb blonde but gains momentum when given more to play.

Dean Ronalds’ camera work is consistent and sometimes clever. The scenes are quite professionally shot and edited, visually keeping the tone of earnestness set forth by the script and actors.

7.4.08

BRITAIN - 2001Romo is a mixed race kid (half Pakistani and half white), but he lives on an all white housing estate. He starts work as an engineer and finds he can pass himself off as white. However when he falls in with a group of NF guys he gets involved in an attack on another Asian youth and is forced to confront himself with emotional results

If films confront racist issues they are usually toasted as being brave or something like that. However this deserves even more praise for looking at racial-self-loathing in no uncertain terms. The plot follows Romo as he tries to integrate himself into the white world around him. This is done well as, at the start, we understand him and almost accept his decision. However we learn how deeply this affects him at almost the same time as he does himself.

The film is violent and has lots of swearing throughout but is all the more powerful for it's realism. It isn't a comfortable watch and the ending is difficult but brave. It almost is a bit OTT and student-film-like but manages to be powerful rather than silly.

Sheppard is excellent in the range he has to deliver on. The rest of the cast are good as well but only really have to do characters where Sheppard must deliver in so many areas. The final scene is delivered with such force and realism that he totally makes the scene.CASTDarren Sheppard ... RomoGeorge Russo ... SkeggsJohn Hudson ... RutzieFreddie White ... CainoJames Bannerman ... PeteScarlett Liebenhals ... JameelaMary Sheen ... MumMarc Zuber ... DadTanisha Rehal ... BabyDirected by Yousaf Ali Khan

23.3.08

CANADA/IRAN - 2007On a scorching hot summer day Nima blows a tire and finds himself stranded in a village two hours outside Tehran. A local girl tells Nima of a bus leaving for Tehran 5km away, a bus she was planning on taking herself. Because of the heat and Nima's attire, she offers to take the morning bus and insists on giving Nima her umbrella for shade as a gift and something to remember his visit with. Nima returns a few days later to give the umbrella back to the kind stranger only to realize that the bus she took the next morning crashed into the hillside, killing all on board.

20.3.08

USA - 2007This tender love story profiles Justin, an architect who is face blind, as he begins a new romance. Face blindness, or prosopagnosia, an impairment to recognize faces, is the result of damage to the right temporal lobe. Similar to people who are colorblind and still see colors but are unable to tell them apart, prosopagnosiacs perceive faces but cannot distinguish them. Justin and Leslie must decide whether their new relationship can overcome the obstacles ahead of them as they try to cope with this bizarre and rare diagnosis. In Vivid Detail addresses the following questions: What are the details we notice about other people and how is this information processed? Can elements, perceived in wholes, be broken down to basic math points? And on a simpler note, how is beauty measured?